Artist Statement
Every evening we ride the spinning earth into a mysterious domain– the kingdom of night. This realm is filled with wonders, yet its treasures go largely unseen because we are prisoners of light.
The nocturnal garden, like the night forest, is a realm of the exotic and the unknown. Its dark depths harbor dreams and unspoken desires. We are linked to the natural world and to an inner one. These flowers, foliage and landscapes are also gestural and once we lose our sight our other senses blossom. Touch is heightened, as is hearing. Even our sense of smell is enhanced, so that the perfumes of night-scented flowers – of lilacs, gardenias and narcissus – seem more fragrant. A transformation takes place and an extraordinary, fascinating world is revealed.
There is much in my photographs of the enhanced forest of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The night garden evokes the inner, symbolic level of a Shakespeare play. There is also a feeling of being in deep water, an abode of the mysterious and otherworldly. It is in this spirit that my nocturnal images explore the margin of dreams and twilight, the place where we experience the night as both enigmatic and beckoning. Scale and proportion seem to lose their relativity. A bench beside a tree trunk looks absurdly small, while the adjacent tree is huge. These settings inspire narratives.
The photographs in this project were taken in twenty of the largest botanical gardens in the United States and Canada in 2006. The exhibition is comprised of forty digital images ranging in sizes from 16x20 to 24x36. They are diptychs, triptychs and groups of fours and it reads like a musical score with the larger photographs being used as places to pause and contemplate. The work is digital and in color. The prints are archival. I would be interested in a commercial gallery or corporate space.
Chronicle Books is publishing a 176 page book called “The Garden at Night” in October 2007. I would love to do a book signing in addition to the exhibition and would also be able to give a lecture on the project if you were interested.
Captions
Linda Rutenberg, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, 2006, giclee print, 20x16”
Linda Rutenberg, Longwood Gardens, 2006, giclee print, 24x36”
Linda Rutenberg, The New York Botanical Garden, 2006, giclee print, 20x16”
Linda Rutenberg, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, 2006, 20x16”
Linda Rutenberg, The New York Botanical Garden, 2006, giclee print, 20x16”
Linda Rutenberg, Longwood Gardens, 2006, 20x16”
Linda Rutenberg, San Francisco Botanical Garden, 2006, 20x16”
Linda Rutenberg, The New York Botanical Garden, 2006, giclee print, 20x16”
Linda Rutenberg, San Francisco Botanical Garden, 2006, 20x16”
